Dodgy sellers are scamming Adelaide furniture buyers on Facebook Marketplace before ghosting them, with an Adelaide Hills victim warning potential buyers.<\/p>\n
The Advertiser on Monday visited a home address provided by a seller, to find no furniture for sale and was told several people had arrived to collect items in recent months.<\/p>\n
An Adelaide man, who asked to be identified as Andrew for safety reasons, said he was scammed in May after responding to an ad for a mid-century modern dresser priced at $250. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I\u2019d better buy this before anyone else does,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Andrew said the seller had a seemingly legitimate reason for disposing of the piece \u2013 it belonged to her father who was moving into an aged-care home \u2013 and asked if he could pick it up at the weekend. <\/p>\n
Then the seller asked him to put down a deposit to hold the item before disappearing. <\/p>\n
Andrew deposited $150 into an account the seller said belonged to her partner before realising he\u2019d fallen for the scam. <\/p>\n
\u201cTheir business case is the deposit,\u201d he said. \u201cThey take you through a script and eventually once all the details are agreed on, they ask for a deposit.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said afterwards, the interaction petered off before ceasing all together. The seller\u2019s account disappeared shortly after. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was quite shocked and disappointed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite clever in a way, (they weren\u2019t) asking for a lot \u2026 I thought I was quite savvy about these things.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really perfect niche because people who want mid-century furniture have a bit of money \u2026 sitting in their account. It\u2019s always a really good bargain and the pictures are always beautiful.\u201d <\/p>\n
Andrew said hereported the scam to SAPOL\u2019s Cyber Issues Reporting System, Scamwatch and his bankbut was unaware if they had taken action.<\/p>\n
In a letter, the bank told Andrew it was unable to recover the funds because they were no longer in the bank account they attempted to recall them from and could not reimburse him. <\/p>\n
The same mid-century dresser was advertised for sale on Facebook Marketplace by a different profile \u2014 with the same backstory of her father moving into aged care \u2014 at the time of writing. <\/p>\n
Andrew said he since falling victim to the scam, he has identified at least half a dozen allegedly fraudulent accounts selling mid-century furniture.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I started looking at these things regularly, I put a few pictures through (Google image search) and they\u2019ll often pop up on some lifestyle site in America or some Pinterest board,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe profile pics are often fake as well.\u201d <\/p>\n
One account identified by Andrew had been selling a vintage mid-century sideboard using what appears to be a stolen profile photo, which The Advertiser traced to a 2015 post from a US-based woman with a different name. <\/p>\n
When The Advertiser inquired about the sideboard, a reporter was told they could pick up the item from a western suburbs address the following day before being asked to deposit money. <\/p>\n
However, when The Advertiser visited the property, a resident said at least three people have come knocking between last November and this April asking to pick up a furniture, including a couch and a table, advertised on marketplace \u2013 none of which she or her housemates had been selling. <\/p>\n
Andrew believes authorities in Australia are not set up to assist individuals who lose money to such \u201ccommonplace low-level scams\u201d but said potential buyers could safeguard themselves by arranging in-person meetings or at least a phone conversation before handing over money.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese kind of real-world interactions make it very hard for scammers to commodify these transactions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
A National Anti-Scam Centre spokesperson said Scamwatch reports are used to assist the centre to stay ahead of scam trends, disrupt scams by sharing intelligence, and warn consumers and business and advised victims seeking a police investigation to make a report to police via ReportCyber. <\/p>\n
SAPOL was contaced for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dodgy sellers are scamming Adelaide furniture buyers on Facebook Marketplace before ghosting them, with an Adelaide Hills 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